CHAPTER XXXI 



The Problem of the Antarctic Zone 



WHILE so much attention was being given to the Arctic prob- 

 lem, that of the Antarctic was long neglected, and only 

 within recent years has any determined effort to solve it 

 been made. It was not until 1600 that the first contact was made with 

 the southern world of ice. Dirk Gerritz, a Dutch navigator, sailing 

 with a squadron for the East Indies, was separated from his other 

 ships while passing through the Straits of Magellan and was driven 

 as far as 64 degrees south. He discovered, in that latitude, a rocky 

 coast line covered with snow. The discovery did not excite any 

 great interest at the time, and, for a period of nearly two centuries, 

 nothing was done to probe further into the mysteries of the south. 

 In 1769 an expedition was sent out under Captain Kerguellen to 

 explore the regions lying to the south of the Cape of Good Hope. 

 He was successful in locating the group of islands, still known as 

 Kerguellen Islands, and sailed thence to Australia, demonstrating 

 that no land, other than these islands, existed between the Cape of 

 Cood Hope and Australia. 



The first to make a vigorous effort to learn the secrets of the 

 far south was the famous Captain Cook, a polar explorer, the pre- 

 decessor of his namesake of our own days. His first voyage of 

 discovery in the southern sea of ice was in 1772-73, in which, after 

 various efforts, he reached only 61 degrees south latitude. In 1774 

 he made another voyage and now attained 71 degrees 10 minutes, 

 further progress to the south being barred by a line of lofty ice 

 cliffs. With unyielding persistence, he went again in 1775, discov- 



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